CaaC (John)

After reading this below I think I will have to watch Bruce Willis in the first Die Hard AGAIN, this quote did make me laugh. “I’m up there on the roof,” Willis would later tell Entertainment Weekly, “they’re strapping the firehose around my waist and they’re slathering me up with this stuff and I said, ‘What’s this for?’ And they said, ‘That’s so you don’t catch on fire. See those big plastic bags of gasoline over there? We’re gonna blow them up when you jump!” Up to this point in his professional life, the hairiest endeavour undertaken by Willis had been exchanging zinging one-liners with Cybill Shepherd on Moonlighting. The series was a spicy update of the Tracy/Hepburn school of “will they/won’t they?” romantic comedy. Now here he was, strapped to a firehose, surrounded by jury-rigged incendiaries. “When I jumped, the force of the explosion blew me out to the very edge of the air bag I was supposed to land on,” he recalled. “And when I landed everyone came running over to me, and I thought they were going to say, ‘Great job! Attaboy!’ And what they were doing is seeing if I’m alive because I almost missed the bag. Finally, I was like, ‘Why would you shoot this scene first?’ And they were like, ‘If you were killed at the end of the movie, it would cost us a lot more money to reshoot the whole thing with another actor" Die Hard at 30: How the every-dude action movie defied expectations and turned Bruce Willis into a star Ed Power 4 hrs ago On 2 November 1987, Bruce Willis, having just dashed from the set of hit TV romcom Moonlighting, found himself gazing down from the roof of a five-storey parking garage on the Westside of Los Angeles. It was his first night shooting his new movie. He was about to make a literal leap into the unknown, jumping into the crisp LA night as a ripple of explosions lit up the dark behind him. The film, of course, was Die Hard. John McTiernan’s valentine to every-dude grit, pump-action one-liners, and blood-stained vests would achieve more or less immediate recognition as one of the greatest action movies ever made. When it had its inaugural British screening at London Film Festival a little over a year later, on 27 November 1988, it reduced a room of cineastes to “oohs” and “aahs” of suspense, and whoops of excitement. On the 30th anniversary of its UK premiere, Die Hard’s genius is indisputable. Its innovation was to take a straightforward premise – criminals hijack a skyscraper (the still under construction Fox Plaza standing in for fictional Nakatomi tower) only for a lone-wolf cop to take them down one by one – and commit to it entirely. Along the way, Die Hard gave us one of the all-time great cinematic villains in Alan Rickman’s German terrorist Hans Gruber – the alpha and omega of the Hollywood Euro-baddie. And there was a readily identifiable hero in Willis’s stubbled-and-fed-up John McClane. (More vv) https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/movies/die-hard-at-30-how-the-every-dude-action-movie-defied-expectations-and-turned-bruce-willis-into-a-star/ar-BBQ6rMt?li=BBoPJKU

Science & Environment Nasa's Mars InSight mission heads for '7 minutes of terror' By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent, Pasadena 2 hours ago The American space agency Nasa will attempt to put another robotic probe on Mars later. The InSight lander is being targeted at a flat plain just north of the planet's equator called Elysium Planitia. It carries a suite of instruments - many of them from Europe - to try to determine the rocky world's internal structure. Signals from the probe confirming its safe touchdown should be received at 19:53 GMT, give or take a minute. As with previous surface missions, InSight must survive the "seven minutes of terror" - the time it takes for a probe entering Mars' thin atmosphere at hypersonic speed to slow to walking pace and gently put itself on the ground. Many have tried; most have failed. "As humanity, as explorers - we're batting at less than 50%," said Nasa's science chief, Thomas Zurbuchen. "Going to Mars is really, really hard." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46333459

Science & Environment InSight Diary: The silence of space By Tom PikeImperial College London 25 November 2018 Prof Tom Pike from Imperial College London is part of the science team on the US-led InSight mission to Mars. His group has supplied tiny seismometers that will enable the Nasa lander to detect "Marsquakes", which should reveal the internal structure of the Red Planet. Here, Prof Pike tells us what happened when his team switched on its sensor system during InSight's 6-month cruise to Mars. InSight is now just two days from Mars, closing in at more than 6,000mph. But it's not breaking a sweat. After May's launch hurled it towards Mars, InSight has been quietly following an orbit around the Sun, an orbit selected to catch up with Mars on Monday evening (UK time).

I thought I was reading something from the SUN or STAR for a minute then saw it was the INDEPENDENT, how the fuck did he ever enrol in the first place without an adult teacher or whatever clicking on that something was wrong, as one 11-year-old boy said “He looks way older than many of the teachers,” a year 11 boy told the Daily Mirror. “It’s like someone’s dad came into school.” Investigation launched into how man aged about 30 could be enrolled at the school as a 15-year-old pupil Colin Drury 1 day ago An adult asylum seeker who may be as old as 30 posed as a 15-year-old student to attend a high school in Ipswich, the government has confirmed. The man was removed from Stoke High School after pupils raised concerns about his mature looks – including his 6ft 1in height and a full beard. “He looks way older than many of the teachers,” a year 11 boy told the Daily Mirror. “It’s like someone’s dad came into school.” The Home Office has now launched an investigation to how the mix-up could have been allowed to happen. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/investigation-launched-into-how-man-aged-about-30-could-be-enrolled-at-school-as-15-year-old-pupil/ar-BBQ2kA0?li=BBoPRmx&ocid=mailsignout

I love snow, did some skiing in my army days in Bavaria and I loved it the wife reckons I am an Eskimo reincarnated as she hates the cold.

Lovely and cold outside with sleet, the wife wanted to go out and do some shopping so I convinced her to stay inside and got a carryout from McDonald's for tea and that done me, they say there is some Arctic weather on the way with a lot of snow, that will do me, better than sleet or rain.

Amazon rainforest deforestation 'worst in 10 years', says Brazil Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has hit its highest rate in a decade, according to official data. About 7,900 sq km (3,050 sq miles) of the world's largest rainforest was destroyed between August 2017 and July 2018 - an area roughly five times the size of London. Environment Minister Edson Duarte said illegal logging was to blame. The figures come amid concerns about the policies of Brazil's newly elected president, Jair Bolsonaro. During the 2018 election campaign, Mr Bolsonaro pledged to limit fines for damaging forestry and to weaken the influence of the environmental agency. An aide for the president-elect has also announced the administration will merge the agriculture and environment ministries, which critics say could endanger the rainforest. Bolsonaro merger plan 'threat to Amazon' Amazon forest safeguards relaxed in Brazil Is the Amazon facing new dangers? The latest government data says most of the deforestation occurred in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará and marked a 13.7% rise over last year's figures. Mato Grosso is the top producer of grains in Brazil, and critics say expanding agriculture is also encroaching on the rainforest. Mr Duarte blamed "an upsurge in organized crime" for the illegal deforestation, and said the country must broaden the fight against "environmental violations and in defence of sustainable development of the biome". Satellite data from the deforestation monitoring project known as Prodesinformed the annual survey. While the rate does mark a significant rise from last year, when the rate of deforestation dropped 16% in a 12-month period, it still marks a 72% drop from 2004, when the Brazilian federal government launched measures to combat deforestation. In that year, an area the size of Haiti - more than 27,000 sq km - was cleared from the rainforest. The Amazon region holds the largest tropical rainforest in the world and is home to plant and animal species that are still being discovered by scientists. Most of its millions of square kilometres are inside Brazil, where under laws dating back to 1965, landowners must keep a percentage of their property forested. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-46327634

Watch How NASA’s InSight Will Plumb the Depths of Mars | NYT - Out There

Study shows 60% of Britons believe in conspiracy theories Esther Addley | 18 hrs ago Sixty percent of British people believe at least one conspiracy theory about how the country is run or the veracity of the information they are given, a major new study has found, part of a pattern of deep distrust of authority that has become widespread across Europe and the US. In the UK, people who supported Brexit are considerably more likely to give credence to conspiracy theories than those who opposed it, with 71% of leave voters believing at least one theory compared with 49% of remain voters.

How do Mane, Firmino and Salah compare to Europe's best front threes? Jamie Smith 28 mins ago Sadio Mane's new contract confirmed Liverpool should be able to rely on the Senegal forward, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino for many years to come. All three attackers have agreed on new long-term deals in 2018 as Liverpool build towards a trophy under Jurgen Klopp, having lost two major European finals under the German. Klopp believes his front three can match any front line in world football, with Mane alone having scored 40 goals in 89 appearances since signing from Southampton in 2016. Here, we assess some of the other lauded front threes from Europe's top five leagues in recent years to see where Mane, Firmino and Salah rank. Mane, Firmino, Salah - Liverpool

Just got an Xbox One S Console & Battlefield V Bundle for our second oldest grandson as a Christmas prezzie (our son said he wanted one), Black Friday sale from Argos at £179.99 reduced from £249.99. Shit, just realized our eldest grandson is into these games too so just waiting on our daughter telling us what he wants then we have the youngest grandson to think of, oh well, Christmas only comes once a year... gulp. Jees, I can remember when I was a wee nipper I was lucky to get a Beano/Dandy album, a few tin soldiers and a cowboy hat, times bloody change nowadays.

Hats off to der Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Klopp’s Charity Dinner raises £50,000 Ste Hoare 10 hrs ago On Monday, Liverpool football Club’s official charity, LFC Foundation, raised £50,000 during a special Gala Dinner with Jürgen Klopp. LFC Foundation expressed its thanks to the LFC family and to Liverpool FC Manager and LFC Foundation Ambassador, Jürgen Klopp, for giving time to support the fundraiser – with monies raised going to LFC Foundation’s MOVE project at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The project specifically supports Alder Hey patients who have Cystic Fibrosis. The power of football and the LFC badge are used to encourage them to partake in plenty of physical activity, which is critical to improving the quality of life and increasing the life expectancy of children living with the condition. Jürgen recently visited Alder Hey to learn about the MOVE project; meeting patient, Carson Kehoe (13) and Physiotherapist in Cystic Fibrosis, Adam Walsh; who were both guests at the lavish event in Liverpool Cathedral. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/jürgen-klopp’s-charity-dinner-raises-£50000/ar-BBPZY2T?ocid=chromentp

Neymar won't return to Barcelona – Xavi Dejan Kalinic 7 hrs ago Barcelona great Xavi believes there is no chance Neymar will return to the LaLiga champions. Neymar is in his second season at Paris Saint-Germain after leaving Camp Nou in 2017, but the 26-year-old is already linked with a return to Barca. The Brazil star reportedly met with Andre Cury, an advisor to Barca in terms of signings, during the international break. But Xavi – who won eight LaLiga titles and four Champions Leagues at Barca – dismissed any suggestions Neymar could return to the club. "I don't see it. I don't see it. I also think it didn't work out well, I don't see it in any way," he told Cadena SER on Thursday. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/la-liga/neymar-wont-return-to-barcelona-–-xavi/ar-BBPZYvR?ocid=chromentp

@Harvsky what do you think? I have never liked the owner Ashley and never will but I do think Raffa is flogging a dead horse at the moment thank's to Ashley. Rafael Benitez: Does Newcastle Utd manager have St James' Park future? 2 hours ago | Newcastle Guillem Balague BBC Sport Column After consecutive wins and seven points out of a possible nine, people are finally beginning to believe Rafael Benitez's claims that his Newcastle United side are not going to be relegated. But even if he does manage to keep them up, will it be enough to ensure he remains at St James' Park? If he does maintain the momentum and ensures Premier League status, it will be an achievement to rival any of the managerial successes crafted over a long and illustrious career. Can Benitez's vision be realised at Newcastle?

Of all the Astronomy photos over the years, I have seen this is one of my favourites next to the Pillars of Creation. The Butterfly Nebula from Hubble Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Reprocessing & Copyright: Jesús M.Vargas & Maritxu Poyal Pillars of Creation Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA)

I think you will like this @nudge , I liked slide 23' Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula'. Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 winners 14 hrs ago (31 slides) https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/photos/astronomy-photographer-of-the-year-2018-winners/ss-BBPZrML?ocid=chromentp#image=23 'Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula' Photographer: Mario Cogo (Italy) Category: Stars and Nebulae (runner-up)

A bit like a stealth bomber, you can't pick it up on the radar yet it can deliver a silent killer blow.

I guess everything will change in the future and maybe this will be one of them, people complain nowadays when they build an airport near their homes of all the overhead noise and buildings rattling, a silent flight would stop all the complaints.

With no moving parts, this plane flies on the ionic wind Devin Coldewey 6 hrs ago Since planes were invented, they've flown using moving parts to push air around. Sure, there are gliders and dirigibles, which float more than fly, but the powered flight is all about propellers (that's why they call them that). Today that changes, with the first-ever 'solid state' aircraft, flying with no moving parts at all by generating "ionic wind." If it sounds like science fiction... well, that's about right. MIT's Stephen Barrett explains that he took his inspiration directly from Star Trek. "In the long-term future, planes shouldn’t have propellers and turbines,” Barrett said in an MIT news release. . “They should be more like the shuttles in ‘Star Trek,’ that have just a blue glow and silently glide." "When I got an appointment at the university," he explained, "I thought, well, now I've got the opportunity to explore this, and started looking for physics that enabled that to happen." He didn't discover the principle that ended up making his team's craft fly — it's been known about for nearly a century, but has never been able to be applied successfully to flight. The basic idea is simply that when you have a powerful source of negatively charged electrons, they pass that charge on to the air around them, "ionizing" it, at which point it flows away from that source and towards — if you set it up right — a "collector" surface nearby. (Nature has a much more detailed explanation. The team's paper was published in the journal today.) Essentially what you're doing is making negatively charged air flow in a direction you choose. This phenomenon was recognized in the '20s, and in the '60s they even attempted some thrust tests using it. But they were only able to get about 1 percent of the input electricity to work as thrust. That's inefficient, to say the least. To tell the truth, Barrett et al.'s system doesn't do a lot better, only getting 2.6 percent of the input energy back as thrust, but they have the benefit of computer-aided design and super-lightweight materials. The team determined that at a certain weight and wingspan, and with the thrust that can be generated that that scale, the flight should theoretically be possible. They've spent years pursuing it. © Provided by AOL Inc. After many, many revisions (and as many crashes) they arrived at this 5-meter-wide, 2.5-kilogram, multi-decker craft, and after a few false starts it flew... for about ten seconds. They were limited by the length of the room they tested in, and figure it could go farther, but the very fact that it was able to sustain flight significantly beyond the bounds of gliding is proof enough of the concept. "This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system," Barrett Said. "This has potentially opened new and unexplored possibilities for aircraft which are quieter, mechanically simpler, and do not emit combustion emissions." No one, least of all the crew, thinks this is going to replace propellers or jet engines any time soon. But there are lots of applications for a silent and mechanically simple form of propulsion — drones, for instance, could use it for small adjustments or to create soft landings. There's lots of work to do. But the goal was to invent a solid-state flying machine, and that's what they did. The rest is just engineering https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/with-no-moving-parts-this-plane-flies-on-the-ionic-wind/ar-BBPYumt?ocid=chromentp

Science & Environment InSight: Nasa's Mars mission on target for landing By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent 21 November 2018 The American space agency Nasa says its InSight Mars lander is on a near-perfect Thanksgiving trajectory. The probe is due to touch down on Monday at 19:53 GMT, to begin its quest to map the Red Planet's interior. Engineers can take the opportunity for one last course correction on Sunday to tighten the line to the bulls-eye - but they may not bother with it. "Right now we're looking really good, and we might be able to skip it," said Nasa's Tom Hoffman. "We'll be working on the final parameters we need over the next few days, so while everybody's off having turkey, there'll be a bunch of people at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) making sure we land successfully," the InSight project manager told reporters. JPL in Pasadena, California, is mission control for all Nasa's planetary adventures. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46298259

Whose for cricket then MPs told off for playing football in Commons chamber 5 hours ago A group of MPs have been reprimanded for playing football in the chamber of the House of Commons. Hannah Bardell posted a video on social media of herself playing keepy-uppy in the parliament after the sitting was adjourned on Tuesday evening. The SNP MP also posed for photographs in the Commons with other MPs including former sports minister Tracey Crouch. Speaker John Bercow said the "historic chamber should not be used for this type of activity". However, he said that several members involved had apologised, and that there were "no hard feelings". Ms. Bardell and Ms. Crouch, a Conservative MP, had been due to play for the UK Women's Parliamentary Football Club on Tuesday, but the match was cancelled amid concerns it would clash with votes in the Commons. The MPs later took photographs in the chamber wearing their football tops, with Ms. Bardell filmed playing keepy-uppy between the green benches. In a statement to the Commons on Wednesday, Mr. Bercow said: "It has been brought to my attention that some football skills were displayed in the chamber yesterday evening after the House rose. "I am informed that the doorkeepers on duty told the members concerned that the chamber was not the place for this activity, however, those doorkeepers were advised that permission had been given. "Let me assure the House that that permission certainly did not come from me." Mr. Bercow said he had received "gracious, indeed fulsome" letters of apology from Ms. Crouch and Labour MPs Stephanie Peacock and Louise Haigh. Another Labour MP, Alison McGovern, was also pictured wearing her football top in the chamber. He added: "I think I can speak for us all when I say that our historic chamber should not be used for this type of activity and I gently remind colleagues if they are seeking to use the chamber outside of sitting hours beyond for the purpose of simply showing it to guests, frankly they should write to me asking for their request to be considered. "I have said what I have said, there are no hard feelings and I consider the matter to be closed." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-46289456

Science & Environment David Attenborough takes 'people's seat' at climate change talks By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News 2 hours ago Sir David Attenborough has said that a failure to tackle climate change will be a catastrophe for the planet. The naturalist and broadcaster made the comments in an interview with BBC News as he took on a new UN role. He will take up the UN's "people's seat" at the opening of crucial climate change talks in December in Poland. It is a platform from which he will give a speech made up of submitted climate change comments from the public for world leaders. "The people's seat is meant to represent the hundreds of millions of people are around the world whose lives are about to be affected by climate change," Sir David told BBC News. "It will sit there to remind politicians who are working at [this] conference - and administrators and governments - that this is not a theoretical enterprise - they aren't working in a vacuum. They are dealing with real people's futures." Sir David will take up the seat in his role giving the people's address for the opening sessions of the conference. He is launching the campaign with a video inviting viewers to share their thoughts on climate change. Ahead of the conference, people will be invited to submit their experiences and opinions on climate change to an online poll and conversations on social media, using the hashtag #TakeYourSeat. Any comments submitted after that address, the UN says, will become part of the meeting "showing the power of the voice of the people". But while the seat may remind politicians around the table of what is at stake, it will still be up to those around the table to decide what actions are taken. Sir David, though, told the BBC that including voices from people experiencing the reality of climate change was vital: "There are fishermen all around the world who know what changes are taking place," he said. "There are people whose houses have been destroyed by increasingly extreme weather. Summarising what is taking place is an almost impossible job, but it's something that has to be done." He added: "People know that the world is changing; they are behind politicians taking action." https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46266348

Never question a lady.